Mobile devices enable a user to process contents stored in a memory to produce a content stream according to a playlist. One example of such a mobile device is a media player, which provides music via earphones to a single user. Other examples of mobile devices include telephones and mobile gaming consoles.
If multiple users want to listen to the music of a mobile device that is a media player, either more earphones must be connected to the media player, or the earphones need to be replaced with at least one speaker. In such an arrangement, all users are constrained to listen to the same music.
With the current state of the art, multiple users cannot have simultaneous access to different playlists on the same media player device. If multiple users share the same media player device they are limited to also sharing the same playlist and thus having the same shared experience. Users wanting to simultaneously access different playlists would need to use a separate media player device for each playlist. This is because the media player processes a single playlist regardless of how many earphones or speakers are implemented in the system. The single playlist limitation is common to various mobile devices and is not necessarily unique to mobile devices that are media players.
It would be desirable that a media player could play different playlists at the same time. For example, such a media player would be useful for a family during air travel. The family would need to bring only one such media player with enough earphones for each interested member of the family, and each family member could simultaneously play music from a playlist that differs from the other playlists. It would also be desirable that other types of mobile devices could simultaneously play different playlists at the same time.